Bread & Butter is my Jam

Some of you under 40’s won’t get this title, but to all of us who grew up in the 70’s one of the best parts of holiday season was how it kicked off with an October 30th television special called “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.” The next night (Halloween) it was a tradition that my mom made chili for dinner and all of the neighborhood kids would stop in for a bowl, sporting their costumes, for a quick, pre-trick-or-treating dinner.

The recipe for my out-of-this-world, Acme Southern Kitchen Chili is on this blog, do find it and carry on my tradition.

Every year come October my classes at the bakery turn holiday-focused and they start off this month with my favorite class, THE GREAT PUMPKIN, where we make; pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, a pumpkin waffle and this earthy and decadent Baked Pumpkin and Rolled Oats.

It only takes about 10 minutes to put this dish together and I like to make it on Christmas Eve and throw in in the oven right before we are finished with presents in the morning. It fills the house with smell of Christmas and goes great with some salty-fatty bacon.

Baked Pumpkin Rolled Oats with Raisins

FOR THE OATMEAL:

2 ¾Cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

¼ Cup Packed Brown Sugar

¼ Cup Real Maple Syrup

1 ½Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

½ Cinnamon

¾ Tsp Salt

1 Cup Pumpkin Puree

2 Cups Milk

1 Cup Heavy Cream or half and half

2 Eggs – slightly beaten

1 Tsp Vanilla

½ Cup Raisins – optional

Method:

Oven set to 350 degrees

Butter an 8-inch baking dish

Toast the oats by placing on a baking sheet and baking until light brown about 8 minutes…. Shake the pan at least once during bake.

Allow to cool, place the oats in a medium size bowl and combine with brown sugar, sugar, pie spice and salt.

Toss the raisins into the dry mixture. And mix to coat the raisins.

In a separate bowl combine the pumpkin, milk, cream, eggs, vanilla.

Stir the dry mix into the wet, pour into buttered baking dish.

Bake until just set about 20 minutes, rotate pan* bake another 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. Scoop into bowls and top with Greek Yogurt or Whipped Cream.